THE FREEDOM OF THE TIMES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II.
Reading edition
The freedom allowed in social intercourse is well illustrated by a sketch in the account of Graham. William Wissing, a Dutch painter who succeeded Sir Peter Lely in fashionable portrait painting in England, was noted for his complaisant manners, which recommended him to most people’s esteem, “In drawing his portraits, especially those of the fair sex, he always took the beautiful likeness; and when any lady came to sit to him whose complexion was in any ways pale, he would commonly take her by the hand and dance her about the room till she became warmer; by which means he heightened her natural beauty, and made her fit to be represented by his hand”!